"I-5 is slow through the curves" – six words that just about every Portland-area commuter is familiar with.

Daily backups on Interstate 5 between downtown Portland and Tualatin, and on other key highways like 99W and 217 between Sherwood, King City, Tigard and Beaverton, are a symptom of a much bigger challenge: Meeting transportation demands in a growing area of the region. Local communities also face a lack of safe options for taking transit, bicycling and walking.

Everyone who lives, works, shops or enjoys the outdoors in the southwest part of the region wants to make sure this area remains great.

That’s why residents, businesses and leaders in the I-5 and 99W corridor have worked together on a vision for how each town and neighborhood will look in the future.

The Southwest Corridor Plan includes many parts that together form a complete vision: Livable, affordable, economically thriving communities with reliable and safe transportation options for every resident and commuter.

What's in the plan?

The Southwest Corridor Plan includes:

A new 12-mile MAX line from downtown Portland to Tigard and Bridgeport Village in Tualatin Learn more

Roadway, bicycle and pedestrian projects to help people get to transit

A strategy to promote equitable development in the corridor when light rail is constructed

A specific equitable housing strategy for Tigard and Portland along the light rail line

A Shared Investment Strategy for transportation improvements that connect the corridor’s communities well beyond the proposed light rail line

This plan has been created as a partnership of seven cities, Washington County and the Metro Council, along with TriMet and the Oregon Department of Transportation.

Learn more about the pieces of the plan below.

Riders boarded the 12-Barbur in Southwest Portland's Capitol Hill area in January 2015.

Frequently asked questions

When will the MAX line open?

Potential alignments are currently undergoing a federal environmental impact study, with local jurisdictions scheduled to select a single preferred route in early 2018. If all regional and federal funding can be acquired by the end of 2020, the line could open about 2027.

Who makes decisions?

During the first phase of the planning process, which started in 2011 and concluded in August 2018, recommendations were made by the Southwest Corridor Steering Committee, appointed by Metro. The steering committee included elected officials and mayors from Washington County, Beaverton, Durham, King City, Portland, Sherwood, Tigard, Tualatin and the Metro Council, as well as leaders from TriMet and the Oregon Department of Transportation.

The steering committee held frequent public meetings where they defined the Southwest Corridor Plan and selected which transit options to continue studying. City, county and regional agency staff provided professional recommendations and information to the steering committee at their meetings. These materials are available and meetings were open to the public while the steering committee was convened. See past meeting materials

A new steering committee will be convened by TriMet in early 2019 to guide project decisions.

A Tigard community forum in 2015.

How has the public been involved? Can I still influence the process?

Stay informed

The best way to stay informed is to sign up for project emails. You'll hear about comment opportunities, upcoming events and documents available for review.

Beginning in 2011, the public was invited to comment at steering committee meetings and Metro, TriMet and partner agencies held events and attended neighborhood meetings throughout the corridor to gather input about key decisions. Several online comment opportunities yielded comments from thousands of people, including the recent DEIS comment period that ran from June 15 to July 30, 2018.

A Community Advisory Committee (CAC) advised the Southwest Corridor Steering Committee on the selection of the preferred light rail route. The committee was composed of community members, appointed by the Steering Committee, who represented various stakeholders in the Southwest Corridor. They were neighbors, businesses, non-profits, drivers, cyclists, disability advocates and educational institution representatives from Tigard, Tualatin, Portland and Lake Oswego. The public provided comments to the CAC at their meetings, too. Learn more about the committee

Now that the steering committee has made a recommendation on the locally preferred route, its job, as well as that of the CAC, is complete. A new steering committee and CAC will be convened by TriMet in early 2019 as design work continues on the route, stations, and companion projects. Those meetings will be open to the public. Ongoing public meetings are anticipated throughout the design process.

A region-wide transportation funding measure that could fund part of the proposed MAX line, along with other regional transportation projects, may be on ballots in November 2020.

Naito Parkway could be how MAX connects in and out of downtown Portland. The area could also see major improvements for walking, bicycling and driving. A detailed environmental review will help determine what the impacts of such investments might be.

What else is in the plan?

The Southwest Corridor Shared Investment Strategy is the foundation of the Southwest Corridor Plan, approved by leaders in 2013. The strategy includes five interrelated recommendations to support community goals in southwest Portland and southeast Washington County.

Invest in transit

Invest in roadways and active transportation

Invest in parks, trails and nature

Consider new regulations and policies, and develop incentives to promote private investment consistent with community vision

Develop a collaborative funding strategy for the Southwest Corridor Plan

Some projects from the strategy are already underway, funded and built by local communities or regional and state agencies. Others require further study or funding for implementation. Some will be built as part of the proposed light rail project. The plan also included the recommendation to study transit from Portland to Tualatin via Tigard.

A critical neighborhood link to Capitol Hill Elementary School and Barbur Blvd., SW Spring Garden St. used to have just a gravel shoulder to walk on. In 2014, the Portland Bureau of Transportation completed sidewalks on the street.

How will we pay for these investments?

The Shared Investment Strategy is not a promise to build, nor a timeline of construction; it is a shared vision among local communities about what they hope to achieve together by focusing investments over time.

The strategy’s projects can only be built with a combination of federal, state, regional, county, city and private funds. To date, partnerships have used funds like these to complete many projects, including:

For the MAX line and related pedestrian and bicycle station access investments, the Portland region will need to pay for half of the capital cost, and apply for matching funds from the Federal Transit Administration.

What other transit options were considered?

From 2011 to 2013, planners identified important locations to serve with high capacity transit and more than 60 possible ways to serve these places. By 2016, the steering committee had refined the choices to a handful of options, including several key decisions:

Light rail is preferred. The steering committee responded to community input and technical findings and selected light rail instead of bus rapid transit for the corridor, in part because of its ability to meet growing demand in the future.

Transit tunnels: The steering committee removed transit tunnels from further consideration: one under Marquam Hill, another under the Hillsdale Town Center, and one to the PCC Sylvania campus. They decided to focus instead on investments to improve transit, bicycle and pedestrian access from those locations to the light rail line.

Terminus: The steering committee determined that Bridgeport Village was the most promising terminus for the line, meaning that it would not extend further south into downtown Tualatin.

Serving downtown Tigard: The steering committee decided to look at two approaches to serving both downtown Tigard and Bridgeport Village: A “through” service that would travel to both places, or a “branched” service that would split into two lines, with every other train serving each destination.

In August 2018, the steering committee made its recommendation on the preferred route for the light rail line. That recommendation narrowed the route options to allow project staff to study the impacts of the final route choice in the Final Environmental Impact Statement.

Find more information on how these descisions were made in the project library. Go

Businesses and apartments along Barbur Boulevard.

How can this project protect housing affordability and create equitable economic opportunities?

The Southwest Corridor Plan has great potential to provide more people with access to employment, education and other opportunities along the light rail line and throughout the corridor.

By studying equitable development, including housing, we can ensure that all community members share in this benefit.

The cities of Portland and Tigard are partnering to create an equitable housing strategy to identify ways to build or maintain affordable housing with a future light rail project. They will work closely with Metro and Washington County to consider other issues that support a high quality of life for everyone in the corridor.

In addition, Metro has received a $895,000 grant from the federal government to develop a corridor-wide strategy for equitable transit oriented development around the MAX line. This effort centers on identifying the housing, employment and educational needs for the wide variety of people who do or will live in the Southwest Corridor.

What are the roots of the Southwest Corridor Plan?

The Southwest Corridor Plan steering committee began its planning work by identifying the goals that communities in this area share for living, working and getting around.

The Southwest Corridor Plan was built around the local visions of each distinct community, including the Tigard High Capacity Transit Land Use Plan, Portland Barbur Concept Plan, Linking Tualatin, Sherwood Town Center Plan, TriMet's Southwest Service Enhancement Plan and Metro’s High Capacity Transit System Plan.

The vision for the Southwest Corridor Plan is to support, strengthen and connect livable and prosperous places from Southwest Portland to Sherwood. Four goals were established in the plan’s charter:

Whether your roots in the region run generations deep or you moved to Oregon last week, you have your own reasons for loving this place – and Metro wants to keep it that way. Help shape the future of the greater Portland region and discover tools, services and places that make life better today.